The present disclosure generally relates to a movable guard for an ice bin, and more particularly to a shallow tray that is capable of pivoting upward to prevent ice from spilling over the back of the bin while opening or closing a freezer drawer.
Refrigerator icemakers create and dispense ice into a freezer compartment of the refrigerator. The freezer compartment can contain a dedicated ice bin for containing the dispensed ice and separating ice storage from the remainder of the freezer compartment. Ice bins may have an open top for convenient access to ice by a consumer and have front, rear and side walls to prevent spillage. To accommodate the ice maker, however, conventional ice bins may have relatively shorter rear wall and side wall portions, which may allow ice to spill out of the bin into the main freezer compartment more easily during bin movement or ice retrieval by the consumer. Compounding this problem is that ice spilled from the bin is more difficult to retrieve and clear from the compartment and may become lodged in the rear of the compartment, preventing the compartment from being fully closed and thereby preventing closure of the freezer itself. For refrigerators having drawer-style freezer compartments, there is a risk of spillage every time the drawer is opened or closed by the consumer, especially if the drawer is moved and stopped rapidly such that ice pushes and piles up towards the back of the bin.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a system that addresses at least some of the problems identified above.